This invention related to an apparatus for transferring articles such as absorbent pads in the manufacture of disposable absorbent articles such as diapers, incontinence control garments or female sanitary pads as they advance along a production line.
In the production and manufacture of disposable products such as sanitary napkins or pants-type diapers, it frequently becomes necessary to manufacture a component of the product in one orientation, and then to rotate that component part 90° so that it is suitably oriented for use in another step in the production process. Various devices have been developed for this purpose and are known to those experienced in the industry. Examples of such apparatus are those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,726,876, 4,880,102, and 5,025,910.
As discussed above, a typical article to be reoriented by the apparatus of this invention is an absorbent pad. Because absorbent pads are typically comprised of several webs, an absorbent core and several elastic members, there is a tendency of these assemblies to contract and become distorted during transfer operations.
An example of a device developed for this purpose is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,122. In this patent, an apparatus is described which receives inserts at an infeed point, stretched them in the cross-direction to what is a more normal length, and then places them onto a receiving web. However this apparatus has the limitation of receiving and placing the inserts at similar product pitches, or web velocities. Additionally, as stated above, this apparatus is only able to stretch the inserts in a cross-direction.
It is desirable to have an apparatus which is capable of receiving items at one pitch, while placing them onto a receiving conveyor at a second pitch in order to provide more flexibility in the range of product configurations. It is also desirable to have an apparatus which is capable of stretching an item in both the cross direction and the machine direction.